Artwork Data

Title

Placebo

Artist

Ernst Hazenbroek

Year

1994

Material

Staal

Dimensions

300 cm

Partial collection

Beeldengalerij

Artwork Location

Address

Open OpslagBeeldengalerijZuiderpark, Den Haag

City district

Escamp

GPS data

52.057094937908, 4.2906702101288 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

Giant sculptures made of sheet steel, measuring between 8 and 15 metres in height. Painted in strong colours. These are the sculptures Ernst Hazenbroek made at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s for two roundabouts in Amersfoort and Alphen aan de Rijn. These robust sculptures were created in an enormous shed and - entirely against the principles of building and gravity - constructed from the top down. To do this, Hanzebroek cuts sheet steel into pieces. He then hoists the various parts up using hoists and shifts them around until he has found the right composition. This working method is comparable to making a collage of cardboard. Although the material is much heavier and difficult to handle on your own.

With these two sculptures by Hazenbroek, the relationship with the sculptures of David Smith (1906-1965) and Anthony Caro (1924-2013) is immediately recognisable. In the 1950s and 1960s, these well-known American sculptors caused a furore with abstract sculptures that they constructed from steel.

The relationship with the American abstract expressionist sculptors is much less (literally) present in the sculptures of the past ten or fifteen years. For these sculptures, Hazenbroek has chosen the cylinder as his starting point. He cuts it into pieces and then uses the resulting curls to make appendages that he bends in different directions. A cylinder also served as a starting point for his pedestal sculpture. This was cut diagonally and further expanded and opened to form an abstract, vertical still life. The impossible thickness of the cylinder and the resistance of the material are clearly visible. Despite this, Hazenbroek has managed to mould it to his will.

Currently, this statue is stationed in the Zuiderpark.

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